FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Comet NEAT on Satuday night

["Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy all;
On Saturday evening two of my observing buddies for many years, AJ Crayon and 
David Fredericksen and I made our way to a site about 60 miles north of 
Phoenix, Arizona (Cherry Road) for a look at Comet NEAT.  

In my 8X42 binoculars it had a 5 degree straight ion tail and the head of the 
comet had a distinct blue-green color.  There was a hint of a white or very 
light yellow dust tail that was very short and only seen near the coma.  The 
coma and the first one degree of tail have a very high surface brightness.  
Enough so that once it was even near dark the comet was easily naked eye.  I 
estimated 3rd magnitude.

In my new 120mm f/8 refractor with a 22mm Panoptic eyepiece the comet was very 
nice indeed.  The coma was quite large, about 40 arc minutes and the tail 
extended for 4 fields of view.  Again, the brightest regions had a distinct 
aqua color.  The nucleus is bright and obvious.

In AJ's 14 inch Newtonian at 180X the coma was much larger than the field of 
view and the nucleus was bright and estimated at 5 arc seconds in size.  There 
was a triangular bright glow extending from the nucleus for about 3 arc 
minutes.  This cone of material spraying off the nucleus was easier with 
averted vision.

How bizarre that we have so few bright comets for several years and now NEAT, 
LINEAR and Bradfield all pop into the night sky.  
You can predict their orbits, but not their performance! 

All in all, a nice comet;
Steve Coe

Author "Deep Sky Observing--The Astronomical Tourist"
Saguaro Astronomy Club website
www.saguaroastro.org
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